Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there. How are you doing? I hope that all is well in the real world. The weather has been absolutely crazy in Honduras this week. One day we wake up and I can see my breath and freezing my butt off, and the next day it's 100 degrees again. Mother Nature Honduran style is really bipolar, she can't make up her mind!
So to start off with the good news, the teens from the Cerrato Family were baptized on Saturday! After quite a bit of work we got the baptismal service worked out and it turned out great. We had quite a bit of challenges making it happen as the usual baptismal service is. For example, since we don't have a chapel in our area, we had to have the baptism in another church a little bit far away. Also, due to the Worldwide Training Meeting for the new Instruction Manual (they had that from 4 to 6 here in Honduras) we had to have the baptism at 7 at night. That is a little bit of a problem since the buses don't run that late. Well, with a couple of other challenges, we were still able to have a spiritual baptismal service. We invited the Hno. Lenin Cerrato (the guy that “kidnapped” us and took us to the house of the Cerratos (we would have never found their house if he didn't take us there!)) to the service, and asked him to talk about the importance of baptism. I wasn't asked to baptize this time so I had a lovely time sitting back and enjoying the spirit of the meeting. We were very happy to be able to hold the baptism this Saturday.
We had the intention to put a baptismal date with Hna. Miriam this week, but we ran into a couple of problems. She is a really great person and is still progressing, but I had always felt that something was still missing, because we had talked about baptism almost every appointment we had with her, and she feels like it's a good thing, but hasn't accepted the date. Yesterday we had a great appointment with her. My companion talked most of the time, but I had the continuing feeling that something was still off, so when my companion looked at me to begin teaching, I didn't know exactly what she needed, so I just began to ask questions...inspired questions. I felt the Spirit very strong in this moment, and then the Hna. Miriam opened up. She began to explain a couple of things that had gone on in her life. So now we have a really good idea of what she needs to hear, and how we will be able to help her progress towards a baptismal date.
This Wednesday we had the changes, and there wasn't too many changes in the zone. But Elder Ortiz and I had to go to the changes meeting anyway because of the new area they opened up in the zone. We went to pick up Elder Paulson (from Bingham High School!) and his trainee aka “son” to show them how to get to their new area. We got them situated into their new house and showed them how to get to the homes of the other elders in their ward. The only problem we still have with their house is that they don't have a telephone, so we've had a couple of communication problems for a couple of days, but today we were able to get them a phone. The new elder that is living in my house is Elder Martin, Elder Tingey’s (from my district) new son! Elder Martin is from Vegas but his parents are Latinos and so he already speaks Spanish. We have had a good time getting to know him and “initiating him in the mission.”
This last week I had my first experience teaching an investigator that has been exposed to anti-Mormon literature, and let me tell you, it was quite the experience. I haven't read a whole lot of it because I try to stay away from that stuff, but there is some absurd comments in those books. I try and do the best I can to not contend or “Bible Bash” with the investigators that want to “prove us wrong.” What I usually do is leave my scriptures in my backpack, I don't even bother trying to use them, because I know that it's not going to work. What you have to do with these types of people is be very delicate, calmly answer their questions, and bear your testimony like you've never borne it before! At the end of the lesson we at least accomplished something, we invited him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it so that he can obtain a real concept of what the Book of Mormon is. I pray that he will really read it.
Other than that, it’s been a little bit of a slow week for Elder Ortiz and I. Still lovin life and chugging along. I hope that you all take care. I love you!
Vaya Pues!
Elder Tinkham
Posts
